RUC Warns of Coming IRA Attacks

ENN 10/22/96 13:21
Excerpted from the ENN Daily Report 10/23/96 - Vol. 2, No. 297

RUC Warns of Coming Attacks; Anniversary Dates
By Steve Macko, ENN Editor

LONDON (ENN) - Security forces in Great Britain have gone on heightened security alert after intelligence has warned that a major Irish Republican Army attack is expected before Christmas. Security was being increased in the capital London and at military bases. It is believed that the IRA is plotting a spectacular attack, most likely to avenge the killing of IRA terrorist Diarmuid O'Neill during an operation that recovered ten tons of explosives last month.

The outgoing head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary in Northern Ireland, Sir Hugh Annesley, warned on Monday that the IRA will probably attempt further bomb attacks before declaring a cease- fire.

Security at the scheduled opening of the Northern Ireland Parliament today is expected to be very tight.

British security forces believe that a high-visibility assassination is another possibility. Personal protection surrounding a large number of VIPs in Northern Ireland has been increased.

A spokesperson at Scotland Yard in London said on Tuesday that there was "a continuing campaign of violence by terrorist criminals. Despite its recent successful counterterrorism operations, the Metropolitan Police Service is not complacent."

Security sources in Northern Ireland have confirmed that the RUC and the British Army, along with a detachment from the SAS, have been alerted about the threats of additional IRA attacks.

There are several anniversary dates upcoming that could coincide with an attack or attacks. The date of 7 November will be the 22nd anniversary of a bombing in Woolwich, which is located southeast of London, where two people were killed and 30 others were wounded in a bombing in a pub near an Army barracks.

Nine years ago, on 8 November, is the anniversary of an IRA bombing in Enniskillen, where 11 people were killed and 63 others were wounded.

An even more significant anniversary date is said to come on 15 November. It will mark the signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement eleven years ago.

Another important date to the IRA would be 29 November, which is the 22nd anniversary of the introduction of the British Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was in response to the 21 November 1974 bombing of a pub in Birmingham in which 21 people were killed.

Scotland Yard is said to be very concerned about the possibility of an upcoming IRA attack. A spokesperson stressed, "Police and other agencies involved in the counterterrorist effort remain alert and are doing everything they can do to minimize the threat."

London's Metropolitan Police are regarding the terrorist threat very seriously. Assistant Commissioner David Veness, the head of special operations at Scotland Yard, said, "I regret that the threat is likely to be in the long term. Looking at the period ahead, we are entering dangerous months."

"The potential for an IRA bomb here or in London is obviously great," said Peter Robinson, an East Belfast MP. He warned that the IRA was capable of striking at any time. He added, "It is fairly significant that the IRA quite often in the past attached their bombs in London to political events. They have always tried to link it to some political event to give it added significance from their point of view. The danger is there."

Senior RUC officers in Belfast believe that the ten tons of explosives that were recovered in London last month were earmarked to be used in attacks that would have been timed to coincide with the IRS bombing of the British Army's headquarters in Northern Ireland earlier this month.

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